Back in the polite surfeit calm land of the Brit, I can contemplate the smoky dens of eating and a constant need to argue; just a little bit.

A vegetarian travelling in the modern era usually discovers the most difficult thing is finding a place to eat where the meal beast is not as common as wheat and people don’t have trouble understanding the exact mean of “I eat no meat” (wo bu chi rou). Yes, that means no fish. While in snow-bound Central Europe this time, instead the most difficult thing was the combination of central heating and smoking. Pretty soon just the smell of heat was sufficient to create the feeling of being surrounded by several tables of smokers in a small oily room.

Maybe the essential oil of smoke had embedded itself into my nose hairs.

The best value though, was finding comfort in the joys of my new snow jacket, while discovering the four borders on the midnight bus between Zagreb and Vienna. I guess with the European borders about to move, low-traffic night time is a great time to practice border control computer skills.

Doesn’t help much with sleep though.

Final word on ADSL in Croatia, seems that being owned by Germans and having a monopoly means that only Siemens modems work for DSL in Zagreb. Shame they don’t tell you that at the computer store when you are buying a Netgear Wireless ADSL Router. Instead after several days of trying, phoning, asking and tinkering, you then find a second hand Siemens SE515 that just works.